Wednesday, May 12, 2010

EXTRA: Job opens up in Oak Park

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is in the Chicago suburbs to try to help the Illinois Republican Party raise money for use come the Nov. 2 elections, while Democrat-turned-independent Scott Lee Cohen picked a political anonymity to be his lieutenant governor running mate.

Yet there are those people who will insist that the top “political” story of the day occurred in west suburban Oak Park, where Salerno’s Pizza & Pasta is now looking for a new hostess to seat customers at the restaurant.

THAT JOB IS the one that has been filled in recent weeks by Betty Loren Maltese, the former Cicero town president who earlier this year was released from prison after serving her sentence for a political corruption conviction.

WLS-TV reported Wednesday that the restaurant manager said she quit. She was not fired. She left her job on good terms.

Since I don’t see anyone connected with law enforcement now talking about going after her for violating the terms of her parole in any way, I’m assuming she has something else lined up in terms of gainful employment so that she can justify to probation officers that she’s not goofing off.

But the reality is that she is going to be one of the characters on the fringe of our society. She has made radio appearances and recently spoke to students at DePaul University (where one student reporter couldn’t help but notice she wore the same fragrance as the student’s grandmother). So maybe that is what Maltese’s future is going to be while she focuses her personal attention on trying to regain legal custody of her adopted daughter (who is now 14).

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.